Progress report for
Partners for Water 2022-2027 – Driving water security worldwide
Achievement at a glance
1. The delta countries approach: Through successful long-term, governance to governance relationships with seven delta countries (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Colombia, Egypt, and Mozambique.), PfW leverages Dutch expertise to address local water and climate adaptation challenges. Results until July 2024• In most delta countries a water sector country platform meeting took place.
• In all delta countries steering committees meetings under the bilateral agreements took place.
• Theory of Change (ToC) per delta country formulated.
• Delegated representatives (DR) to locally drive the delta cooperation were appointed in Bangladesh and Indonesia.
2. The thematic approach focuses on Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and Water-Biodiversity-Food (WBF) nexus. It enhances and influences projects financed by others (government or financial institution) or effectuating transformative sectorial processes.
NBS aims to develop concrete solutions for existing challenges, presenting itself as a potential alternative to more traditional approaches, primarily focusing on the pre-project phase. It aims to provide an additional boost to the large-scale implementation of NBS. In June 2023 a Letter of Intent (LoI) between RVO/PfW5 and ADB was signed focusing on NBS. ADB projects that fulfil the requirements of the thematic approach are shared with PfW to discuss if they have potential to fit in the thematic approach.
The objective of the WBF theme is realising sustainable agricultural projects under the condition of water security for all life on earth (including humans), restoration of biodiversity and combating climate change. Projects or interventions are to stimulate and / or catalyse improved or new processes to realise system change by intervening at the beginning of project chain or process.
New initiatives and interventions are developed to contribute to scaling up and accelerating large-scale impact in these 2 themes. NBS and WBF projects are started in Philippines, Argentine, Chile, Peru, South Africa.
3. The subsidy scheme: A stimulus for the Dutch water sector to introduce innovations abroad, scale them up, and learn from them. In total 6 rounds will be organised. In the first three rounds 9 feasibility studies and 23 pilot projects were awarded for a total of €7,303,109
4. The promotion and communication component facilitates connections with the water sector and international partners, and disseminates PfW5 programme results, including lessons learned. This component also contributes to positioning the Netherlands as a global Centre of Excellence in water, with specific attention to its contribution to the SDGs.
5. The knowledge building and sharing component supports knowledge development in the programme, in collaboration with the Dutch water sector and international partners, aimed at strengthening the programme’s impact.
6. The customized component responds to developments aligning with the goals of the NIWA and other programme components. In particular, the Disaster Risk Reduction and Surge Support (DRSS) programme will receive financial support from this component.
Challenges faced in implementation
A change in national government will lead to changes in focus and budget in the final three years of 2025-2027.Next Steps
The delta countries approach:• Co-creation and social inclusion aspects could be strengthened within some delta teams, but also within some projects. The PfW5 programme coordinator can support this process via the CoP social inclusion and will suggest a suitable work method.
• Improving the BUILT-NEGLECT-REPAIR cycle in projects could be an interesting overarching theme for all delta countries because of the G2G focus. A strategy will be developed to address this cycle in delta countries and to develop and share knowledge on this theme. It will bring together different policy instruments, also non-PfW.
• (more) Attention for relation water-biodiversity nexus in projects is needed.
The thematic approach: new NBS projects in Ghana, Nepal, Thailand, and WBF in Kenia, India, Mexico.
For the subsidy scheme, two additional rounds are held, one in 2024 and one in 2025.
Beneficiaries
(National/regional/local) governments (depending on scale of project/process), NGO’s, local people, international water sector
Actions
-knowledge sharing events-local implementation of projects focusing on water security